The Who Brings Back Ringo Starr's Son Zak Starkey

Music

Apr 22

Who’s back in The Who? Zak’s back, that’s who! Or perhaps he never left? There seems to be some confusion over the departure/non-departure of ex-Beatle Ringo Starr’s son and nearly 30-year drummer for the 60’s/70’s rock band The Who Zak Starkey. Last Wednesday, it was reported that Zak Starkey had been fired from the group over an incident where he was accused of “overplaying” at a concert last month at the Royal Albert Hall.

Roger Daltrey, the band’s lead singer, paused the last song of the show, “The Song is Over,” telling the crowd, “To sing that song I do need to hear the key, and I can’t. All I’ve got is drums going boom, boom, boom. I can’t sing to that. I’m sorry, guys.” The Who later released a statement saying that they parted ways with the drummer, stating that “The band made a collective decision to part ways with Zak after this round of shows at the Royal Albert Hall,” and that they “have nothing but admiration for him and wish him the very best for his future.”

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Starkey even responded as if he was sacked, first in a since-deleted angry Instagram post in which he stated that The Who was “LITERALLY GOING TO ZAK THE DRUMMER,” but later released a much more eloquent prepared statement to the press.

“I’m very proud of my near thirty years with The Who. Filling the shoes of my Godfather, ‘uncle Keith’ has been the biggest honor and I remain their biggest fan,” Zak said, with ‘uncle Keith’ referring to The Who’s original drummer, Keith Moon, who was Zak’s godfather. Starkey referred to the band as family to him, cherishing the relationship they’ve shared even before he formally joined the band in 1996. He initially stated he was going to take some time off and focus on the upcoming release of the single “Domino Bones (Get Dangerous)” by Mantra Of The Cosmos with Noel Gallagher in May as well as finish his autobiography, but it seems Pete Townsend, the band’s lead guitarist, might have something to say about that, with him saying the following in post on the band’s website, titled “News Flash! Who Backs Zak!”:

”He’s not being asked to step down from The Who.

There have been some communication issues, personal and private on all sides, that needed to be dealt with, and these have been aired happily.

Roger and I would like Zak to tighten up his latest evolved drumming style to accommodate our non-orchestral line up and he has readily agreed. I take responsibility for some of the confusion. Our TCT shows at the Royal Albert Hall were a little tricky for me. I thought that four and a half weeks would be enough time to recover completely from having a complete knee replacement. (Why did I ever think I could land on my knees?) Wrong!

Maybe we didn’t put enough time into sound checks, giving us problems on stage. The sound in the centre of the stage is always the most difficult to work with. Roger did nothing wrong but fiddle with his in-ear monitors. Zak made a few mistakes and he has apologised. Albeit with a rubber duck drummer.

We are a family, this blew up very quickly and got too much oxygen. It’s over. We move forward now with optimism and fire in our bellies.”

Zak responded with his own thankful post on Instagram: